This Week on Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend: Chris Hardwick
This Week on Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend: Chris Hardwick Talks About Career Struggles, Impostor Syndrome, Internet Bullying and Never Taking His Socks Off, Not Even During Sex
On this highly personal episode of Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend, comedian and Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick (The Nerdist Podcast, @midnight) reveals he was plagued with self-worth and control issues in the early part of his career.
“The struggle years, and there were a lot of them—I don’t have those anymore. But it’s been supplanted by responsibility and not ruining it and not fucking it up,” says Hardwick.
Rosen confides that in her darkest moments there’s an insecure voice saying she’s a fraud and asks if Hardwick experiences the same thing. “Yes. There are some days where I feel like, ‘Ok I got stuff figured out,’ and there are a lot of days where I’m like, ‘I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.’”
“And I think those thoughts can be useful if you use them as motivators, in other words, work on your craft, always try to get better, appreciate what you have, be nice to people. We had Paul McCartney on the podcast." He said he only recently got over impostor syndrome.
“You just don’t know what it’s like to be in someone else’s skin... You can look at them and go wow, the grass is really fucking green over there. But from their side, you might just be seeing a patch. You don’t know what anyone is going through. We’re all human beings.”
Also discussed in this episode:
• The dark side of the internet and how social media fuels narcissism, bullying and trolling
• Chris’s feelings about recently getting into it with a fan on twitter who accused him of being “a bro comedian.”
• Chris’s recent trip to Austria with his girlfriend, model/heiress Lydia Heart
• Struggles with anxiety [32:09]
• Chris’s former penchant for “volatile” romantic relationships
• Having to repeatedly reinvent himself because he moved so frequently as a child
• Trying desperately to fit in
• MTV needing to bring in a stylist to dress Chris when he hosted Singled Out [38:54]
• The downside of cynicism and how it’s “disgustingly lazy” [42:40]
• Being accused of not being a “real nerd” [43:48]
• Setting the record straight on the genesis of the Nerdist podcast. “Matt Mira (Nerdist cohost) was on [ARIYNBF] recently right? Did he say he started the Nerdist podcast? You know that’s not true, right?[55:55]
• Growing up with a father whose worldview was shaped by grieving the loss of two infant sons
• Hating the feeling of bare feet and never taking his socks off, not even during sex [1:30:17]
ARIYNBF is the top-rated female comedy podcast on iTunes. Listenership skyrocketed after Rosen's controversial firing from co-hosting The Adam Carolla Show podcast.
The Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend Podcast is released on Mondays and Thursdays. It's available for free on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or Alison Rosen Online.
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